The brown adipocyte protein CIDEA promotes lipid droplet fusion via a phosphatidic acid-binding amphipathic helix

Maintenance of energy homeostasis depends on the highly regulated storage and release of triacylglycerol primarily in adipose tissue, and excessive storage is a feature of common metabolic disorders. CIDEA is a lipid droplet (LD)-protein enriched in brown adipocytes promoting the enlargement of LDs, which are dynamic, ubiquitous organelles specialized for storing neutral lipids. We demonstrate an essential role in this process for an amphipathic helix in CIDEA, which facilitates embedding in the LD phospholipid monolayer and binds phosphatidic acid (PA). LD pairs are docked by CIDEA trans-complexes through contributions of the N-terminal domain and a C-terminal dimerization region. These complexes, enriched at the LD–LD contact site, interact with the cone-shaped phospholipid PA and likely increase phospholipid barrier permeability, promoting LD fusion by transference of lipids. This physiological process is essential in adipocyte differentiation as well as serving to facilitate the tight coupling of lipolysis and lipogenesis in activated brown fat

Cardiolipin signaling mechanisms: Collapse of asymmetry and oxidation.

SIGNIFICANCE: An ancient anionic phospholipid, cardiolipin, ubiquitously present in prokaryotic and eukaryotic membranes, is essential for several structural and functional purposes. RECENT ADVANCES: The emerging role of cardiolipins in signaling has become the focus of many studies. CRITICAL ISSUES: In this work, we describe two major pathways through which mitochondrial cardiolipins may fulfill the signaling functions via utilization of their: i) asymmetric distribution across membranes and translocations leading to the surface externalization, and ii) ability to undergo oxidation reactions to yield the signature products recognizable by the executionary machinery of cells. FUTURE DIRECTIONS: We present a concept that cardiolipins and their oxidation/hydrolysis products constitute a rich communication language utilized by mitochondria of eukaryotic cells for diversified regulation of cell physiology and metabolism as well as for inter-cellular interactions

Oxidized arachidonic and adrenic PEs navigate cells to ferroptosis.

Enigmatic lipid peroxidation products have been claimed as the proximate executioners of ferroptosis-a specialized death program triggered by insufficiency of glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4). Using quantitative redox lipidomics, reverse genetics, bioinformatics and systems biology, we discovered that ferroptosis involves a highly organized oxygenation center, wherein oxidation in endoplasmic-reticulum-associated compartments occurs on only one class of phospholipids (phosphatidylethanolamines (PEs)) and is specific toward two fatty acyls-arachidonoyl (AA) and adrenoyl (AdA). Suppression of AA or AdA esterification into PE by genetic or pharmacological inhibition of acyl-CoA synthase 4 (ACSL4) acts as a specific antiferroptotic rescue pathway. Lipoxygenase (LOX) generates doubly and triply-oxygenated (15-hydroperoxy)-diacylated PE species, which act as death signals, and tocopherols and tocotrienols (vitamin E) suppress LOX and protect against ferroptosis, suggesting a homeostatic physiological role for vitamin E. This oxidative PE death pathway may also represent a target for drug discovery

Electron Transfer and Electrocatalytic Properties of the Immobilized Met80Ala Cytochrome c Variant in DMSO

The electrode-immobilized Met80Ala variant of yeast iso-1 cytochrome c in mixed water/dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) solutions up to 60 % v/v DMSO shows thermodynamic and kinetic parameters of electron exchange and electrocatalytic properties towards O2 reduction fully comparable to those in water. This is the result of moderate protein conformational changes thanks to immobilization that, to a certain extent, preserves protein structure, possibly due to the constraints on protein mobility/flexibility induced by the electrostatic interactions with the electrode-coating SAM. Upon increasing the DMSO content of the mixed solution beyond 60 %, a much larger perturbation occurs that leads to the progressive loss of the electrocatalytic ability. Therefore, under these conditions, the organic solvent remarkably affects the structure and properties of the protein probably involving major conformational changes or even the replacement of the 6th axial hydroxide ligand of the heme iron with a strong protein ligand, possibly a lysine residue

Oxidized arachidonic and adrenic PEs navigate cells to ferroptosis

Enigmatic lipid peroxidation products have been claimed as the proximate executioners of ferroptosis—a specialized death program triggered by insufficiency of glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4). Using quantitative redox lipidomics, reverse genetics, bioinformatics and systems biology, we discovered that ferroptosis involves a highly organized oxygenation center, wherein oxidation in endoplasmic-reticulum-associated compartments occurs on only one class of phospholipids (phosphatidylethanolamines (PEs)) and is specific toward two fatty acyls—arachidonoyl (AA) and adrenoyl (AdA). Suppression of AA or AdA esterification into PE by genetic or pharmacological inhibition of acyl-CoA synthase 4 (ACSL4) acts as a specific antiferroptotic rescue pathway. Lipoxygenase (LOX) generates doubly and triply-oxygenated (15-hydroperoxy)-diacylated PE species, which act as death signals, and tocopherols and tocotrienols (vitamin E) suppress LOX and protect against ferroptosis, suggesting a homeostatic physiological role for vitamin E. This oxidative PE death pathway may also represent a target for drug discovery